Beside the Point

Last week's City Council meeting came with a bit of déjà vu, as the council confirmed its decision to commission an independent study of the regional toll road plan. Although no specific firm had yet been assigned to do the job, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens reported on the search and said the main obstacle was the council's eagerness to get the study done quickly – the firms contacted so far say it will take (at least) three months. The consensus was that three to four months would have to do, and as Brewster McCracken put it optimistically, the study "still can make an important difference because this is a time frame where we can always amend the [CAMPO] 2030 [Mobility] plan if we have an alternative for this region." The discussion was energized a bit by the release, the day before, of the comptroller's unflattering audit of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, and McCracken got in a couple of shots about wasted money and incipient corruption. (The hope remains to get some other agency to kick in for the study, although the only public body with which Austin has significant stroke is Travis County.)

During briefings, CFO Stephens also delivered an overview of the city's bond program, in prepation for the appointment of a citizens' advisory committee that will develop a bond proposal later this year. Stephens reported that most of the funding from the 1998 bond election has been spent or will be within the next two years, and gave an overall positive review of the city's bond prospects. He also presented several projections that would follow from the council's choices in proposing an increase of one to three cents in the property tax rate for any 2006 bond election. The council took no action, but members are in the process of recruiting citizens for potential appointment to the CAC.

Jan Stephens, of the city's redevelopment services office, briefed the council on applicants for city hall's new restaurant space, an indoor-outdoor cafe to be situated at the corner of Second and Lavaca. The surviving applicant is Austin Java Company – others hesitated, and Apple Annie's withdrew its application because of a city requirement that the restaurant serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner (still a dicey Downtown proposition) – and the plan is the lease will be completed by April for operations to begin in August. After hearing from Rick Ingalls of Austin Java Company – several council members admitted to being regular customers – the council voted to authorize staff to negotiate and execute a lease.

There's no council meeting this week – no doubt in honor of SXSW – but there will plenty to do March 24.